Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Progress on the RX-78-2 Ver.2 kit. Like I thought, building the parts I've already made from the RGM-79 is a little boring, actually a lot boring... However, still worth it cause the Core Fighter is completely new and neat. Great how it folds up into a little Core Brock.

Exia was a little more complicated to Topcoat due to all the clear pieces. Nemo had the clear orange visor to take off, but that was minimal. Exia has those clear green circles on the legs, arms, head, and chest. Actually, they weren't that bad to remove. The "new material" strips (holographic plastic), however, I didn't even try to take out, since most are embedded well in the build of the kit. I tried to cover the arm loops with tape, but it didn't work out so well... Good thing the fogginess isn't too bad.

Also, Topcoat. Decals aren't so great on Nemo. I mean, they're simple, so it's not so impressive. Also, stickers and dry decals were the only option. I've been spoiled by water slide... They might take longer, but stickers are really annoying to cut out too... and they leave that border!

Continuing with the Topcoat extravaganza, RX-178 gets the second round of Topcoating. Since it was the "special edition" kit which featured water slide decals as well as shiny plastic, the topcoat went on a little differently. Kind of like it better, it's still shiny in a way, but it's dull... I don't know, it's just nice.

Used Topcoat for the first time. Again, still learning new things. Learned not to spray from too close as "pools" of the Topcoat solution formed at various parts of Unicorn creating unsightly bubbly residue. Had to scrape it off, which didn't help much in terms of looks. After a second coat (this time with knowledge acquired) the model seems to have recovered somewhat.

The feel of the plastic changed more than I thought it would. It really does feel like ceramic or something, which is interesting. After Unicorn, had to the rest of my finished kits...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Just got this RX-78-2 Ver. 2.0 MG kit in the mail today. Might be a little dry to build since the GM 2.0 is basically the same frame (except the head, waist, weapons, and a small leg armor on the front). It has a core fighter though, so that should be fun and new. What can I say? I just needed to have the original Gundam.

Finally got around to taking some photos since I finished this a couple of days ago. The Ver. 2.0 frame is really nice articulation wise, like I said before, but it really showed during posing. Not much equips for GM here, short little Beam Spray Gun, Hyper Bazooka that barely attaches to the back. But it makes sense, given this particular mass produced MS. My only problem is that the armor plates behind the ankles, they always seem to fall off when the foot is moved or rotated.

I have some water decals for this kit, not sure if I'm going to apply them all since the basic look is nice, but I might.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Swell progress on MG RGM-79 GM 2.0. Liking very much this model, so far. Perhaps my fav? The inner frame is very detailed (pistons and whatever) and the articulation is superb. Guess that's what you get when you upgrade to 2.0. Want a RX-78 2.0 now... The hands. Wow, articulation for each finger. Much better than manually cutting each one! Also, Core Brock. Neat.

I meant to update the blog with progress shots of MG MSA-003 Nemo here, but never got around to it. So thar it is completed. Hrmm, what can I say. Nice stable kit, good joints, minimal equips. Cockpit hatch is hard to open, the upper part is supposed to pull out so it can swing up. Basically no way to pull it out without just taking off the armor piece. Yet to apply decals. No water transfers for this one, so I'm not sure if I will even try the stickers, hate how they leave a border...